Hayim Nahman Bialik (Hebrew:חיים נחמן ביאַליק; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934)^[a] was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily inHebrew andYiddish. Bialik is considered a pioneer ofmodern Hebrew poetry, part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice to a new spirit of his time, and recognized today as Israel'snational poet.^[1] Being a noted essayist and story-teller, Bialik also translated major works from European languages.^[2]

Hayim Nahman Bialik
Bialik, 1923
Born	(1873-01-09)January 9, 1873 Ivnytsia,Volhynian Governorate,Russian Empire(present dayZhytomyr Oblast,Ukraine)
Died	July 4, 1934(1934-07-04) (aged 61) Vienna,Austria
Resting place	Trumpeldor Cemetery,Israel
Occupation	Poet, journalist, children's writer, translator
Literary movement	Hovevei Zion
Signature

Hayim Nahman Bialik was born in Radi,Volhynia Governorate in theRussian Empire^[3] to Itzik Yosef Bialik, a wood merchant fromZhytomyr, and his wife, Dinah Priveh.^[4] He had an older brother Sheftel (born in 1862) and two sisters Chenya-Ides (born in 1871) and Blyuma (born in 1875).^[5] When Bialik was 8 years old, his father died. His mother took him toZhytomyr to live with hisOrthodox grandfather, Yankl-Moishe Bialik. Bialik would not see his mother for over twenty years, when he brought her to Odessa to live with him.^[6]

In Zhytomyr, Bialik explored European literature alongside the traditional Jewish religious education he received. At the age of 15, he convinced his grandfather to send him to theVolozhin Yeshiva inVilna Governorate to study underNaftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, where he hoped he could continue his Jewish schooling while expanding his knowledge of European literature. There, Bialik encountered theHaskala or Jewish Enlightenment movement and, as a result, drifted away fromyeshiva life. A story in the biography ofChaim Soloveitchik cites an anonymous student, presumably Bialik himself, being expelled from the Yeshiva for involvement in the Haskala movement. As Rabbi Chaim was escorting him out, Bialik asked, "Why?" In response, the rabbi said he had spent the time convincing Bialik not to use his writing talents against the yeshiva world. Poems such asHaMatmid ("The Talmud student"), written in 1898, reflect Bialik's great ambivalence toward that way of life: on the one hand, admiration for the dedication and devotion of the yeshiva students to their studies; on the other, a disdain for their narrow world.

At 18, Bialik left forOdessa. A center of modern Jewish culture in the southern Russian Empire, drawn by his admiration for authors such asMendele Mocher Sforim andAhad Ha'am. There, Bialik studied Russian and German language and literature while dreaming of enrolling in theOrthodox Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. Alone and penniless, Bialik made his living teachingHebrew.

The 1892 Bialik published his first poem,El Hatzipor "To the Bird", which expresses a longing forZion, in a booklet edited byYehoshua Hana Rawnitzki (1859–1944), which opened the doors into the Jewish literary circles in Odessa. There, he joined theHovevei Zion movement where he befriended the authorAhad Ha'am, who had a significant influence on hisZionist outlook.

In 1892, Bialik heard news that the Volozhin Yeshiva had closed and returned home to Zhytomyr to prevent his grandfather from discovering that he had discontinued his religious education. He arrived to find both his grandfather and his older brother close to death. Following their deaths, Bialik married Manya Averbuch^[7] in 1893.

For a time, he served as a bookkeeper in his father-in-law's lumber business inKorostyshiv, nearKyiv. This proved unsuccessful so, in 1897, he moved toSosnowiec, a small town in theDąbrowa Basin inVistula Land inCongress Poland, which was controlled by the Russian Empire. There, Bialik worked both as a Hebrew teacher and, to earn extra income, acoal merchant. In 1900, feeling depressed by the provincial life of Sosnowiec, Bialik secured a teaching job in Odessa.

Bialik visited the United States, where he stayed with his cousin Raymond Bialeck inHartford, CT. He is the uncle of actressMayim Bialik's great-great-grandfather.^[8]

The year 1900 marked the beginning of Bialik's "golden period": he continued his activities in Zionist and literary circles, and his literary fame continued to rise. In 1901 his first collection of poetry was published inWarsaw, where it was greeted with much critical acclaim, being hailed as "the poet of national Renaissance". Bialik relocated to Warsaw briefly in 1904 to serve as literary editor of the weekly magazineHaShiloah founded byAhad Ha'am, a position he served for six years.

In 1903, in the wake of theKishinev pogroms, the Jewish Historical Commission in Odessa asked Bialik to travel to Kishiniev (todayChișinău) to interview survivors and prepare a report. In response to his findings, Bialik wrote his epic poem "In the City of Slaughter" (originally published under the name "Massa Nemirov"), a powerful statement of anguish at the situation of the Jews. The poem's condemnation of passivity against anti-Semitic violence is said to have inspired thousands of Jewish youths to cast off theirpacifism and join the Russian underground against the Czar,^[9] the founding of Jewish self-defense groups in the Russian Empire, and, later on, theHaganah inPalestine.^[10][6]

It was during his visit to Odessa that Bialik first met the painterIra Jan,^[12] with whom he conducted a secret love affair for many years.^[13]

In the early 1900s, Bialik, together with Yehoshua Rawnitzki, Simcha Ben Zion andElhanan Leib Lewinsky, foundedMoriah, a publishing house aimed at issuing Hebrew classics and school texts. He translated into Hebrew various European works, such asWilliam Shakespeare'sJulius Caesar,Friedrich Schiller'sWilliam Tell,Miguel de Cervantes' novelDon Quixote,Heinrich Heine's poems, andS. Ansky'sThe Dybbuk.

Throughout the years 1899–1915, Bialik published about 20 of hisYiddish poems in differen periodicals throughout the Russian Empire. These poems are often considered to be among the best of modern Yiddish poetry. Starting in 1908, Bialik switched to writing in prose: In collaboration with Rawnitzki, Bialik publishedSefer HaAggadah (The Book of Legends, 1908–1911), a three-volume edition of the folk tales and proverbs scattered throughout theTalmud. The book comprises a selection of hundreds of texts arranged thematically. It was immediately recognized as a masterwork and has been reprinted numerous times. Bialik also edited the poems of theAndalusi poet and philosopherSolomon ibn Gabirol and began a modern commentary on theMishna, but only completedZeraim, the first of the sixSedarim (Orders), of the Mishna.^[14] For this, Bialik intentionally chose to use the traditional Vilna edition of the Mishnah instead of a more scientific text and created, arguably, the first modern commentary to aSeder of Mishnah that included, in its introduction, a summary of the content as well as all of the relevant biblical passages.^[15] In the 1950s, under the direction ofHanoch Albeck, theBialik Institute published a commentary on the entire Mishnah, an expansion of Bialik's project.

In 1919 in Odessa, Bialik founded the Dvir publishing house.^[16][17] The institution, now based in Israel, is known today asKinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir after it was purchased by the Zmora-Bitan publishing house in 1986, and subsequently merged with Kinneret Publishing. It was in Odessa, where BIalik befriended thesopranoIsa Kremer, and inspired her to become the first woman singYiddish music on the concert stage.

Bialik remained inOdessa until 1921, when the Moriah publishing house was closed bySoviet authorities as a result of mounting paranoia following theBolshevik Revolution. Through the intervention ofMaxim Gorky, a group of Hebrew writers were given permission by the Soviet government to leave the country;

Bialik moved, via theSecond Polish Republic andRevolutionary Ankara Turkey, toBerlin, where, together with his friends Yehoshua Rawnitzki andShmaryahu Levin, he re-established the Dvir publishing house. There, in collaboration with the rabbinical collegeHochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Bialik published the first Hebrew language scientific journal.

In Germany, Bialik joined a community of noted Jewish authors and publishers. Among them wereShmuel Yosef Agnon,Salman Schocken (owner ofSchocken Department Stores and founder ofSchocken Books), the historianSimon Dubnow,Israel Isidor Elyashev,Uri Zvi Greenberg,Jakob Klatzkin (cofounder of theEshkol publishing house in Berlin),Moyshe Kulbak,Zeev Latsky ("Bertoldi") (cofounder ofKlal-farlag publishing house in Berlin in 1922),Simon Rawidowicz (co-founder ofKlal-farlag),Zalman Shneour,Nochum Shtif,Shaul Tchernichovsky,Shoshana Persitz (founder ofOmanut publishing house) andMartin Buber. They met routinely at the Hebrew Committee HouseHebrew:בת וועד העברי,romanized: Bet Havad haIvri) in Berlin'sScheunenviertel, in Café Monopol, which had a Hebrew-speaking corner, or Café des Westens (both in Berlin's more elegant western boroughs).

Bialik succeeded Klal Publishing's Hebrew chief editor, Saul Israel Hurwitz, upon his death on August 8, 1922, during which time 80 titles were published.^[18]

In January 1923, Bialik's 50th birthday was celebrated in the old concert hall of theBerlin Philharmonic, bringing together everybody who was anybody.^[19]

Bialik first visited Palestine in 1909.^[10][6] In 1924, he relocated with his publishing house Dvir to the township ofTel Aviv, devoting himself to cultural activities and public affairs and becoming a celebrated literary figure in theYishuv. In 1927, Bialik was elected as head of theHebrew Writers Association, a position he retained for the rest of his life. That year, he founded theOneg Shabbat society ofTel Aviv, which sponsored communal gatherings onShabbat afternoons to study Torah and sing. Even though he was not an observant Jew, Bialik believed that public observance of Shabbat was essential to preserving the Jewish people. In response to criticism regarding his community activism, Bialik responded: "Show me the judge who can say which is preferable: a good poem or a good deed."^[20]

Bialik wrote several different kinds of poetry: he is perhaps most famous for his long, nationalistic poems, which call for a reawakening of the Jewish people. Bialik had his own awakening even before writing those poems, arising out of the anger and shame he felt at the Jewish response to pogroms. In his poemIn the City of Slaughter, Bialik excoriated the Jews ofKishinev who had allowed their persecutors to wreak their will without raising us to defend themselves.^[21] No less admired are his passionate poems on love, nature, the yearning for Zion and children's poems.

Bialik wrote most of his poems usingAshkenazi pronunciation. Today, modern Israeli Hebrew uses theSephardi pronunciation (what Miryam Segal called the "new accent"), i.e., an amalgam of vowels and consonantal sounds from variety of sources.^[22] Consequently, Bialik's poems are rarely recited in the meter in which they were written, although according to Segal, the Ashkenazi (penultimate) stress pattern is still preserved.^[23]

Bialik contributed significantly to the revival of theHebrew language, which, before his days was used almost exclusively for liturgy. The generation of Hebrew language poets who followed in Bialik's footsteps, includingJacob Steinberg andJacob Fichman, are known as "the Bialik generation".

Bialik is honored as Israel's national poet.Bialik House, his former home at 22 Bialik Street in Tel Aviv, has been converted into a museum and a center for literary events. TheBialik Prize for literature was established by the municipality ofTel Aviv;Kiryat Bialik, a suburb of Haifa, andGivat Hen, amoshav bordering the city ofRaanana, are named after him. The research body and publishing house, theBialik Institute, is named after him. He is the only person to have two streets named after him in the same Israeli city – Bialik Street and Hen Boulevard in Tel Aviv. There is aBialik Hebrew Day School in Toronto, ON, Canada;^[24] aBialik High School in Montreal, QC, Canada, and a cross-communal Jewish Zionist school in Melbourne calledBialik College; inCaracas, Venezuela, the Jewish community school is named Herzl-Bialik and the Jewish school inRosario, Argentina is named after him.

Bialik's poems have been translated into at least 30 languages, with some set to music as popular songs. These poems, and the songs based on them, have become an essential part of the education and culture of modern Israel and throughout the Jewish world.

Bialik died inVienna,Austria, on July 4, 1934, from a sudden heart attack a week after undergoing a successfulprostate operation.^[25] His burial inTel Aviv had a large mourning procession followed fromhis home on the street named after him, to his final resting place.^{[citation needed]}

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  Mendele Mocher Sforim,Sholem Aleichem,Mordechai Ben Ami [he], Hayim Bialik in Odessa, 1910
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  Hebrew writers in Odessa before leaving the Soviet Russia, 1921
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  Passport ofBelarusian People's Republic, 1921
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  Israel 10 Lirot Obverse & Reverse, 1968
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  Israeli postal stamp, 1959
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  Statue inRamat Gan, Israel

• Selected Writings (poetry and prose) Hasefer, 1924; New York,New Palestine, 1926; Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1939; New York,Histadrut Ivrit of America, 1948; New York, Bloch, 1965; New York, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1972; Tel Aviv, Dvir and the Jerusalem Post, 1981; Columbus, Alpha, 1987
• The Short Friday Tel Aviv, Hashaot, 1944
• Knight of Onions and Knight of Garlic New York, Jordan, 1939
• Random Harvest – The Novellas of C. N. Bialik, Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press (Perseus Books), 1999
• The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself (2003),ISBN 0-8143-2485-1
• Songs from Bialik: Selected Poems of Hayim Nahman Bialik, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2000
• Selected Poems: Bilingual Edition, (translated by Ruth Nevo), Jerusalem: Dvir, 1981.

• Holtzman, Avner (2017).Hayim Nahman Bialik : poet of Hebrew. New Haven.ISBN 978-0300200669.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Tamar Rotem,"The Flower is Forgot: the life and works of national poetHayyim Nahman Bialik are not taught properly",Haaretz Newspaper ,17/07/2001
• Ziva Shamir,"Spiritual Merchant & Motionless Wanderer: Dramatis Personae and Speaking Voice in Bialik's Works","Bikort & Parshanut" Magazin 2002
• Ziva Shamir, "A Thousand Mouths Anointed With Poison: The Anatomy of Modern Anti-semitism in Bialik's Oeuvre", "KESHER" Journal #33, Spring 2003.
• Ziva Shamir,"No story, no history", Bialik's Stories from Texture to Context (Lecture circa 1998),www.zivashamir.com

• Works by or about Hayim Nahman Bialik at theInternet Archive
• Works by Hayim Nahman Bialik atLibriVox (public domain audiobooks) 
• Petri Liukkonen."Hayim Nahman Bialik".Books and Writers.
• Hayim Nahman Bialik Personal Manuscripts and Letters